That was the lesson that emerged from Sunday's astounding debut recital by the 26-year-old Russian keyboard phenom. In a strange and unforgettable program presented by Cal Performances in Berkeley's Hertz Hall, Volodos seemed intent on exploring the outer edges of what is possible on the piano.

Many pianists offer pure virtuosic display, but Volodos' technique is faster, cleaner, more dazzling. Others play the soulful poet at the keyboard; Volodos has that angle cov ered too.

Expansive showpieces? Delicately etched miniatures? He can go in either direction, taking the matter of scope and formal dimensions all the way.

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What Volodos doesn't seem to do, at least on the evidence of this program, is indulge much in the standard repertoire (although he made an extraordinary debut with the San Francisco Symphony in January playing Rachmaninoff's Second Concerto).

Not extreme enough, perhaps. Instead, Volodos assembled a program designed to show off his amazing combination of superhuman technique and interpretive intensity.

SOMETHING MYSTERIOUS

The mood was established even before he played a note. The piano lid was down (at Volodos' own request) and the house lights were too, as if to signal that something unusual and mysterious was in the offing.

And it was, beginning with a series of shortish pieces by Scriabin, delivered without a break: "Enigme" from the Three Pieces, Op. 52, "Caresse dansee" from the Two Pieces, Op. 57, and the Sonata No. 10.

Here was the Russian composer at his most deeply mystical, spinning out esoteric, questing melodic lines, unparsable harmonies and ghostly filigreed ornamentation. And here was Volodos, plunging right into the enigmatic swirl and pulling his listeners in with him. Through the alchemy of his playing it was possible, for just a fleeting moment, to believe that this music made some kind of spectral sense.

Later, Volodos turned to the keyboard-wizard side of things, playing the miraculous showpieces of his predecessors Liszt and Vladimir Horowitz and, with his own compositions, staking a proud claim to a place in that tradition.

He closed the first half with a beautiful, lilting nocturne by Glinka titled "La separation," then fol lowed it with his own maniacal set of variations on a theme from Glinka's opera "Ruslan and Lyudmila." Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 15 (the "Rakoczy March") concluded the regular program, but a long string of encores included Horowitz's showy treatments of Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" and Bizet's "Carmen," and Volodos' witty take on Mozart's "Turkish Rondo."

I'm not sure it's possible to convey in words the speed, dexterity and precision of Volodos' virtuoso playing; it has to be witnessed to be believed. Presumably, the laws of physics place a limit on how quickly and accurately a pianist's fingers can get around a keyboard. In Volodos' case, though, that limit may well be the speed of light.

If that were all there was to him, the effect would be amazing but ultimately limited. But there's no mistaking that Volodos is an artist of the first rank.

That much was clear in the series of Rachmaninoff pieces -- again, played without a break -- that occupied the first half of the program. And it was evident after intermission with a varied and remarkably attentive account of Schumann's "Bunte Blatter" ("Colored Pages"), a long stretch of 14 character studies.

SCOPE AND DETAIL COMBINED

In both cases, Volodos combined breadth of scope with a stunning concern for detail -- spinning out long melodic lines, for example, while being sure to shape the accompaniment figures with equal craftsmanship.

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For such a peerless virtuoso, he is unembarrassed by simplicity when the music calls for it. For an artist of such complex sensitivity, he still remains in touch with the pleasures of unfettered exhibitionism.

He may well be one of a kind.

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